Bowling.blend (19.7 MB)
Alex, take a look at his file, please? The pins fall before the ball hits them and the ball doesn’t travel all the way to the pins even though I went into scene properties then rigid world and scene simulation made the adjustments.
Phil, you didnt have your bowling shoes on!!! 
I know man
After messing with it, nothing seems to work. So I just remade it and it works fine here. I would continue from this file here & see if when you add the faces on the pins if they disappear etc but the physics of it works here
Bowling.blend (1.8 MB)